Jim Walker, Brian Chpaman, Deane Berman and Jack Nicklaus
raining, but would there be a chance for you to come out and watch my son hit a couple of shots and tell me who I ought to send him to for lessons?’ And Raymond, bless him, did. He saw me hit two shots and said, ‘Arthur Lees.’ Arthur was the pro at Sunningdale then. Great man. Bit of a gambler. He’d give me a lesson in the morning and then we’d go out and play with a couple of members in the afternoon, and Arthur would gamble on the result. And I think and hope that, even though I was never involved in the financial side of it, I helped make him a few bob.”
AMBITION “I had decided I wanted to get a Blue at Cambridge. As a child I had read a lovely book called Family Golf and the son of the family was awarded a Blue and I thought, ‘I want to do that.’ And with Alan Young’s encouragement I managed to get a place at my father’s old college to read Law at Cambridge.”
BRIAN BECOMES A MEMBER
OF THE RA “Aged 18 I was called up and joined the ranks of the Royal Artillery. Thanks to a broken wrist at Mons Officer Cadet School, I didn’t pass out near the top of my squad and I only got my second choice. Everyone wanted to go abroad and so did I, so I chose Germany. But I did get my first choice in the UK which was strategically planned because it was Dover – not far from Deal. I joined the golf club for £4 a year - which was the public school membership – and played a good deal
24 ROYAL LIVERPOOL GOLF CLUB MAGAZINE 2013
of golf. I also got involved with the Royal Artillery Golf Society and started playing for them. However, I don’t think my golf improved while I was in the army. I was just playing – I hardly practised at all.”
UNIVERSITY DAYS “When I went up to Cambridge I was surrounded by terrific golfers and this was when I really began to learn how to play. It started for me with the freshmen’s trial and I remember David Marsh, the captain of the side in my first year, who said, ‘I’ve had a letter about you from Alan Young. He says you’ve got a chance.’ I did OK in the trial and was lucky enough to be picked straightaway. And so I became part of what was a fantastic experience for any would be golfer. Virtually every weekend during the winter terms we would get up at crack of dawn on Saturday and get back to Cambridge late Sunday night having played 72 holes of golf against the best amateurs in the country. You play on a different golf course every time and you learn; and if you don’t learn, you don’t do very well. Perhaps the key events were when we played against the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society, and also The League. This was a team selected by Raymond Oppenheimer and Gerald Micklem composed entirely of top amateurs including a lot of current internationals. These matches were played at the wonderful Royal Worlington and the competition was tremendous. Every Monday these matches and all the other club games were covered by several columns in the Times and the Telegraph. It
The big, square college boy with a crew cut.
was a wonderful time and I loved it. When we played against Moor Park in January 1956, David Marsh invited me to play in the University Match to be held at Formby in March. I had been awarded my “Blue”. Fast forward to my third year. I’m having lunch with Ted Dexter and John Churchill in the Hawks Club at Cambridge. We’ve been in two losing golf teams and need to do something different. By this time I’m having lessons from John Jacobs at Sandy Lodge, and the three of us agree to see if John would come to help us. His answer was ‘Yes’, and the result was a wonderful week just before Christmas 1957. The Cambridge team plus John stayed at the Queens Head in Rye. We had lessons and played golf all week. John, one of the nicest men I have ever met, charged us very little, taught us a great deal, and beat us at Poker. We won our third University match!”
AFTER GRADUATION “First thing you want to do is get a job. So I got one with the Mobil Oil Company. We’re talking 1958 and lots of people worked Saturday mornings and got 2 weeks holiday. Doesn’t leave a hell of a lot of time to play in golf tournaments, and there weren’t that many of them. But at the end of a year’s training I was looking after an oil terminal at Preston. By this time I had become a member of Royal Liverpool and most Saturdays I could get away about 11.30, take the cash to the bank and then get down to Hoylake and spend the rest of the weekend playing golf, bridge, and very bad snooker at the Club. There would be a bed for the night on Saturday with some kind friend. I also wanted to play in a few championships, and that needed planning. If you think of it the Brabazon was Friday, Saturday, Sunday, you had to get at least one day off and preferably more if a lot of travel was involved. Practise rounds were more or less out of the question, and if you played in the English Championship, or the Amateur, that could take the thick end of a week.
This time around 1960 saw a critical
change in Amateur Golf. Before 1960 only four GB&I Walker Cup players had turned professional. Today very few do not. The Walker Cup was the preserve of men who played golf for fun and did something else for a living. We had no amateur league tables or ratings. Handicaps were relatively unimportant and used only to gain entry to a few top championships. Aspiring English players would be expected to play in the English Championship, the Brabazon Trophy, the Berkshire Trophy, and if possible the Amateur, but they had
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